Yankees and Red Sox? Meet Apple and Exxon Mobil

Ah yes, the Dog Days of summer, a time when you can practically hear Boston and New York fans jaw at each other as the baseball playoff races heat up and their teams jostle for first place.

And as that fight for No. 1 goes on, you could argue that the Red Sox and Yankees of the stock market world are Apple Inc. AAPL and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, with the crown of Most Valuable Company up for grabs. The back-and-forth between the two market titans continued Wednesday, with Apple getting the jump on Exxon. Apple shares fell about 2%, to around $367, but that still gave the company a market cap of $340 billion. Exxon’s shares were off by more than 3%, to about $69, leaving the oil-services giant’s market capitalization at $335 billion.

Apple briefly surpassed Exxon’s market cap on Tuesday, but, like the Yankees have done so many times on the baseball diamond, Exxon managed to climb back and hold onto its crown by the time the market closed. But Apple, like the Red Sox, has become a winner in its own right over the last few years, and seems poised to overtake its unlikely rival.

In the eyes of the public, the winner is clear. People may need gas, but they love their iPhones. And iPads. And iPods. And Macs. And, well, you get the idea.

– Rex Crum

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